by Dave Graybill, May 06, 2005

Ever had a fishing trip that was just so good that you and your fishing buddy made a vow to come back the next year? You know, to travel to the same place at the same time of year and try to duplicate the great experience that you just had. It could have been a trip to an exotic river in Alaska, or just the opening weekend at Jameson Lake, but there was something about it that you wanted to happen again and again.

It’s almost ten years ago that Vern Westerdahl and myself made this kind of pact. To come back together to Banks Lake in May and fish for smallmouth bass. Vern had invited me to come along with him, saying that this time of year was prime time for smallmouth fishing on Banks, and he had a favorite area of the lake that usually produced good catches of pretty good sized smallies.

Boy, was he right. We caught fish after fish, casting in any direction over what seemed to be ordinary water, and using just one lure. Most anglers would assume that this was just one of those being in the right place at the right time deals. Just won’t happen again. But Vern has taken me back to this same spot on Banks Lake for years at about the same time in May, and we have always caught fish. Some years more fish than others. Some year’s bigger fish than others. But we always catch smallmouth in this area of Banks Lake in May.

Okay, Okay. We believe you. Where the heck is it!

The Barker Canyon Flats. I call the area we fish in the Barker Canyon region on Banks Lake "flats" because there is a long, gentle slope to the bottom here, and one of the features we try to follow is an old road bed that existed long before the Banks became a lake. Banks didn’t come into existence until sometime after the construction of Grand Coulee Dam, which began in 1933. Banks was created as a reservoir of irrigation water for the vast reclamation project that altered the Columbia Basin from desert to farmland.

This old roadbed attracts smallmouth bass like a magnet. The broken shale and rubble along its edges is prime habitat for their spawning, and we take fish from as shallow as seven to nine feet. We work the roadbed and surrounding area to depths of 15 to 20 feet and sometimes even more. What seems to determine depth location is the water temperature, which can vary considerably in the spring.

What affects the water temperature is the functioning of Banks Lake as an irrigation reservoir. Banks Lake also is impacted by the power generation demands of Grand Coulee Dam, and even at times water releases to protect salmon smolt that are moving downstream in the Columbia far below.

In the spring, Banks Lake may drop or rise as much as three feet in a day as water is pumped in and out of the lake. The drive from the causeway at the bottom end of Banks, to the top end at Coulee City takes about a half-hour. This should give you an idea of the size of this body of water. Almost thirty miles long and as wide as a mile or more in places. To fill or drop a lake of this size by two or three feet is moving a lot of water! Enough to make a big difference in water temperature for sure. The ideal spawning temperature for smallmouth spawning is 66 degrees. But it has to remain at this temperature for a period of time for full-blown spawning to bloom.

This is not always a negative. Smallmouth bass will gather in spawn regions like the flats in Barker Canyon, pair up, and then wait until the water temperature is just right to trigger spawning activity. The fluctuation of water level and temperature can extend the spawning period of smallmouth here a month or more. This will keep smallmouth present in this area of the lake, but there is a downside. Instead of a frenzied, brief period when the bass will attack anything that gets near their nest, the heat of the spawn is dissipated. The action never gets "white hot", but consistent action will persist over a longer period.

This circumstance can make the decision of exactly when to hit Banks for smallmouth a tough one. Timing is everything it seems. Vern and I have experienced the full gamut of action on the flats. From full on fish every few casts, to cast-and-run; search-and-destroy explorations to find fish in this general area.

When we are making our plans for the annual run to Banks Lake and Barker Canyon for smallmouth fishing, Vern and I gather as much information as we can to pinpoint the right time to make our trip. Vern interrogates his network of fishing buddies. We check on the success of recent bass tournaments on the lake. I call my contact at Coulee Playland, Dave Altier. We check the weather daily. We do anything we can think of to give us clues as to the conditions on the lake. But like so many anglers, sometimes it just boils down to when we can get away.

Try as we may to hit the flats in Barker Canyon at just the right time, our success has varied over the years. Oh sure, we always catch fish. But sometimes we get females that have just spawned and weight a pound or two less that a week before. We hear we should have been there a week earlier or a week later. Who of us hasn’t experienced this mishap of timing? But the one thing that has been consistent throughout all of these years and has never failed to produce strikes is: the lure!

The first thing we do when we settle in for our first cast on the flats of Barker Canyon is reach into our respective tackle boxes and grab a Rattlin’ Rap or a Rat-L-Trap. The Rattlin’ Rap is made by Rapala, and the Rat-L-Trap is made by Bill Lewis Lures, but they are the same type of bass plug. They are both flat-sided, with two sets of treble hooks, and they both have a split ring well forward on the top side, so they retrieve with a nose-down attitude. They have a very tight wiggle and, of course, rattle like crazy.




The two colors that have proven to be irresistible to smallmouth mouth, year in and year out, are the crawfish and fire tiger. We may have missed the peak of the smallmouth spawn. We may have misjudged the weather. But these two lures have never failed to catch smallmouth bass on the flats of Barker Canyon on Banks Lake.

Certainly, other lures will catch smallmouth here. There is a list of crankbaits worth a try that is too long to list here. We have caught smallmouth with eight-inch lizards in their throats. Last year we watched an angler in a float tube catch fish after fish casting small, white grubs.

Heck, lots of stuff will work at one time or another, but we can always count on these rattlers.

When I say we’ve settled in on the flats, and are about to make our first cast, we are usually in that nine- to 12-foot depth. We are positioned over what we determine to be the roadbed by merely lining ourselves up offshore with where we can see the old road enter the lake. This is near the boat launch at the mouth of Barker Canyon.

The lake bottom here is largely featureless. Sure, there is the occasional rock pile or slide that attracts fish. There are even a few pinnacles or rock structures that rise from the bottom and can be spotted from the surface. But our start-the-day technique is just cast the lure as far as you can, count down and retrieve.

Sounds simple and, it is. Sometimes that’s all it takes to have wear-yourself-out action on smallmouth here. But other times we have to work a little harder. After we have "fanned" the water from the boat and are convinced that the fish are scattered, we will start to move and explore different depths. We will continue with this tactic until we feel it is necessary to find some structure to find fish. And there is structure in Barker Canyon, too.

As I mentioned, there are some submerged rock formations that can be found just below the surface. There are also some rocks that are visible above the surface, and one island large enough to support bushes and grass. When the seemingly featureless flats have failed us, we will begin to work these various structures methodically.

We will cast along every edge and drop of sunken and visible rock. We will work the entire shoreline of the island, and then the steep clay banks on the northwest edge of the canyon area. We will also run southwest and explore the basalt shale edges of the bays to the south. There are also reed beds along the shore in this area, too, and some a distance off shore.

I know that Banks Lake is no secret to anglers who fish for smallmouth and largemouth bass. We have never taken a largemouth on these annual trips, which makes sense. Given the type of water we are fishing and the time of year, we’re not surprised.

Those who are familiar with Banks Lake may not be aware of a major project going on here that is designed to benefit not only fans of small and largemouth bass, but also the whole range of warm water species in the lake. The project will in fact benefit every species of fish, all animals even the insects that inhabit the area as well.

I spent an hour on the phone with Lou Nevsimal, Banks Lake Project Manager with the Washington State B.A.S.S. Federation, and he gave me a thumbnail sketch of what is a multiyear and very complex enhancement program.

Nevsimal was smitten by Banks Lake in the mid-80s. Not just the fishing, but also the whole atmosphere of Banks. The dramatic basalt cliffs and the prominent landmark Steamboat Rock. A submariner based in Bangor, Washington then, he had lots of time on his hands to study fishery enhancement and management. In 1994, when he became the vice president of the B.A.S.S. Federation, he began drafting and gathering support for the project. After three years of laboring with the permitting process and negotiations with a wide range of local, state, and federal agencies, the project was launched in ‘99 with a test bed of plants in different soil types to see if they would survive.

Planting for the purpose of creating habitat for wildlife, waterfowl, and even insect life continues and the construction and positioning of three different types of structures will begin soon. A forty-foot barge has been donated and is being refurbished for the transportation of the structures to various points in the lake.

The first type of structure is made up of concrete with branches molded to it so that they are horizontal to the bottom, and are placed three to six feet deep. These will provide spawning areas critical to crappie, and bass.

Type 2 structures are designed to provide holding and cover habitat for the fry of these species. These are known as rearing structures, and anchored with concrete with a variety of limbs and trees attached. Honeysuckle, evergreens and other trees will give dense cover for young fish and help them grow large enough to survive.

The largest of the structures are type 3, which require six cubic feet of concrete, are 20 feet in diameter, and when arranged with domes of brush will be ten feet high. These domes will not only be used by fish, but will grow moss, attract insect life and even appeal to crawfish.

The plan also includes offshore planters made from manhole piping. These will be positioned in about four or five feet of water and will contain willow trees. These will create a secondary canopy from the shoreline willows, and will promote insect life and compliment the spawning and rearing structures nearby.

The project is in its second year of a five–year plan, and the goal is to have 3,800 of these structures placed in Banks Lake. One of the lessons learned from other efforts was that if a limited number of structures were put in water, it concentrated the fish and made them easy to catch. Hopefully, with the number that B.A.S.S. plans to put in the lake, the population of fish will outstrip the harvest.

The estimated cost of the whole project is about $250,000.00, and about $65,000.00 has been raised so far. The contributions have come from a wide range of sources, and the search for additional funding continues. The Washington State B.A.S.S. Federation has raised $20,000.00. The Spokane Walleye Club has contributed $19,000.00, and another $20,000.00 has come from the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife’s ACEA Fund. This fund provides grants for fish and wildlife enhancement throughout Washington. Other sources have provided smaller amounts, and raffles and private contributions have made up the difference.

An extraordinary contributor to the project is Coulee Playland Resort. The owner Hal employs Lou Nevsimal, and pretty much gives him the run of the place and the time for the project. They also will provide moorage for the barge and have also provided space for the storage and construction of the plants and other materials needed to construct the structures. They have also contributed tools, equipment and provided a meeting place at the resort.

Every project of this nature requires money, equipment, more money, and more materials, but the essential element of any project is the volunteer time that puts it all together. Work parties have already been at work at Banks this season, and the plan is to have work done every day from March through October, except on the major holiday weekends.

Those who want to help out, and any group or individual is welcome, can contact the B.A.S.S. Federation through their web site a www.wabass.org, or call Coulee Playland Resort at (509) 633-2671. To send money to help pay for materials and equipment, write to Mark Rosling, 2525 W. Snoqualmie River Rd. N.E., Carnation, WA 98014. Checks can be made out to: Banks Lake Enhancement Project, or WSBF/BLEP.

Banks Lake has been one of the most popular recreation destinations in the state for decades. A Mecca for bass anglers, walleye anglers, trout anglers, and even those who love crappie and bluegill. It is also a noted carp fishing spot with fly anglers. It is not only enjoyed by anglers, but those who enjoy all forms of boating sports, camping, bird watching, bird hunting and other outdoor sports. Everyone will benefit from the enhancement project underway.

The state record for largemouth bass was set in 1977 at Banks Lake at 11 pounds, .56 ounces, and it is the hope that the efforts of this project will make the interval between records a little shorter.

The future is bright at Banks Lake, and even now offers some of the best recreation in the state. I know I’ll be back on Banks casting over the flats of Barker Canyon with my friend Vern in May. If you’d like to plan a trip, here are a couple places to call to find out what’s going on.

Coulee Playland is at the top end of Banks, near Electric City. You can call them at the number mentioned earlier. They have a great campground here, a tackle shop, gas and moorage. When you call you will probably catch Dave Altier, who is a great source of fishing information, or even Lou himself.

Steamboat State Park, which is about two thirds of the way up the lake is a very popular spot in the summer. There is camping and a ramp here, and to check on availability call (509) 633-1304. You can also find out about the park through the Washington State Parks web site at www.parks.wa.gov. At the bottom end of the lake, is Coulee City, and another park that offers an excellent ramp and some moorage.

You can also check my web site for current reports on Banks Lake and other North Central Washington destinations by logging onto www.fishingmagician.com.

There are several launches along the east shore of Banks Lake that are accessible from the main highway that runs up this shore of the lake. If you want get to Banks Lake and this shore, take Highway 17 or US 2 to Coulee City. Turn north onto Highway 155 and this will take you all the way up to Electric City and beyond to Coulee Dam.

If you want to get to the flats at Barker Canyon, you can launch at Coulee Playland or Steamboat Rock State Park and run across the lake, or you can drive to the launch in Barker Canyon. You can drive west on Highway 174 about 10 miles to the Barker Canyon Road. It’s about six miles down a washboard road to the ramp.

You can also get to the Barker Canyon Road from the west by driving north from Wenatchee on Highway 97. When you pass through Brewster, take the turnoff to Highway 17 and Bridgeport. When you cross the bridge below Chief Joseph Dam, continue up the hill and then it’s about 40 miles to the Barker Canyon Road on your right.

I can tell you, that as the calendar approaches May, I’ll be trading phone calls with my buddy Vern, and making plans. In pretty short order we’ll be taking the turnoff to the ramp at Barker Canyon.

In all the years we have been making this trip, we have been blessed. We’ve both been in good enough health to make the trip. We’ve never broken down on the way, and believe it or not the lake has been calm and the sun has been shining.



Smallmouth will be waiting for us. It’s a sure thing.